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Same-Sex Marriage Barrier Nears End in Massachusetts

BOSTON — Massachusetts moved closer on Tuesday to erasing a hurdle that blocked most out-of-state gay men and lesbians from marrying here.

Following a vote by the state Senate two weeks ago, the House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to repeal a 1913 law that prevented Massachusetts from marrying out-of-state couples if their marriages would not be legal in their home states.

The vote of 118 to 35 followed about 45 minutes of debate. Gov. Deval Patrick said he would sign the repeal.

When Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay men and lesbians to marry in 2004, then-Gov. Mitt Romney invoked the 1913 law, saying the state should not become “the Las Vegas of same-sex marriage.” Same-sex marriage advocates tried unsuccessfully to have the ban lifted in court, but held off pressing lawmakers to repeal it because they worried it would become an issue in the presidential election.

But after same-sex marriage became legal in California in June, regardless of where a couple lives, and Gov. David Paterson of New York decided to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, advocates felt they could push to lift the ban without becoming a national lightning rod. They even argued, supported by a state study, that Massachusetts would reap millions of dollars from same-sex weddings and tourism.

Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, criticized the vote, saying the legislators’ “arrogance and folly are doing terrible harm to marriage laws across the country and eroding the people’s right to define marriage.”

Michael Thorne, 55, and his partner, James Theberge, 50, of Cape Elizabeth, Me., said they planned to marry in Provincetown, Mass. Mr. Thorne said he and Mr. Theberge had declined to register as domestic partners in Maine, where same-sex marriage and civil unions are illegal, because it would have felt like “willingly going to sit in the back of the bus.”

He said, “we made a commitment to our 6-year-old a couple of years ago that we would get married, and he won’t let us off the hook. He has a little brother now who’s 8 months old and that makes it important for both of these guys to demonstrate to them our commitment to be a family for them, and to be a family as legitimate as any other.”